Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. My Commencement matter concerns the need for the Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, to outline the steps her Department is taking to increase tourism at the Cliffs of Moher and in areas of west Clare to support a greater spread of the socioeconomic benefits of tourism. I raise this matter because I have huge fears around the plans for the Cliffs of Moher site. The site is stunning, the staff are amazing and the council has done good work in creating spaces for a lot of local producers of crafts and clothes to sell their products at the venue. Some good local food producers are supported as well. That is the first point, and it is positive.

Fáilte Ireland and the local authority have just spent €500,000 of the profits from the site on a new strategy for the Cliffs of Moher. I have huge concerns about the strategy. I do not know why the focus has to be on getting more and more people to the Cliffs of Moher when it should really be on getting more people to spend their money in other places around the Cliffs of Moher. The whole strategy aims to increase the number of people visiting the Cliffs of Moher where huge profits are already being made. I am not sure whether the aim of the council or Fáilte Ireland is to make more money. That seems to be what this strategy is all about. There is some tokenism around local benefit and socioeconomic benefit to other areas. There are considerations and such. Overall, however, the bottom line seems to be about getting more people to the Cliffs of Moher.

Clare County Council is not a business; its job is to run the county. While there are some great people working in the organisation, there has been an overemphasis on getting more and more people to spend more time and money at the Cliffs of Moher. Its plan is to increase the time visitors spend at the site, from less than two hours to up to three and half hours. Fáilte Ireland would say the more time people spend in a place, the more money they tend to spend. Fáilte Ireland will also agree with me that the slower a tourist moves, the more money he or she spends.

There is still a huge emphasis in this new strategy on getting people to travel to the site by car and bus. There is talk of providing two shuttle buses from two places, Lisdoonvarna and Ennistymon. While that is a good idea, there is no mention of the buses being electric or the service being looped, which is a much better form of doing this. We have seen this done well in a lot of other places. Bus routes should be looped in order that they serve locals as well as tourists. Tourists would be able to meet the locals and hop off in places like Kilfenora, Miltown Malbay and Lahinch along the way and spend money in those places as well.

The whole focus is still on getting everyone to go to the cliffs. The shuttle service leaving from Lisdoonvarna and Ennistymon, while a good idea, will still just be feeding people in. It has been said that every shuttle bus will remove 12 cars. While that is good, it is still not sustainable tourism. The word "sustainable" is continually used. Using that word does not mean it is a sustainable plan. A sustainable plan is putting money and tourists into our beautiful towns and villages all around the Cliffs of Moher. The traffic up there is crazy as it is. This plan has not taken seriously the need to invest in our towns and villages, and not just in the Cliffs of Moher. I read the whole report. It states: "Consideration should be given to providing a connection between the proposed Eurovelo 1 cycleway and the Cliffs of Moher." "Consideration" is the weakest word the council could possibly use. It is not going to make it happen.

The report goes on to state: "There are opportunities to develop and promote cycling off the main roads and in particular east of the R478." There has been a cycling route there for years. There are loads of mini signs for routes 1 and 2 all over north Clare but no one knows what they mean. The council has not managed to get a map online or an app for anyone to use. There are loads of ways doing that. The council has neglected the coastal route for years and is finally doing something about it but I have huge concerns about its priorities.

Today, we read again that we have failed to reach our climate targets and that transport is the number one issue. Despite this, we have Fáilte Ireland and Clare County Council promoting another driving route through the Burren. Locals are not happy with that either. We need to up our game. Fáilte Ireland needs to take seriously the work the Minister, Deputy Martin, is doing to create a proper sustainable tourism strategy and on which she has been working hard. Fáilte Ireland needs to get people on its board who are experts in sustainable transport, protecting biodiversity and understanding proper socioeconomic benefit to local towns and villages.